Getting pets to take medicaments in pill or liquid form is difficult and frustrating. A limited number of pet medications are available in flavored chewable formats. However, most pet medicaments are not provided in this manner due to cost and shelf-life concerns. Thus, the pet owner or veterinarian is left with the uncomfortable task of cajoling or forcing an animal to ingest an undesirable medication. One traditional technique is to hold the pet's mouth open and introduce the medicament into the back of the throat of the animal. Of course, this is uncomfortable and distressing to the pet and not always successful.
Another approach is to embed a pill medicament in some food item that is desirable to the pet, such as butter, cheese, a hot dog, or commercially available pet treats such as Greenies® brand Pill Pockets®. While this approach is less invasive, it can be equally frustrating as the intelligent pet manages to enjoy the tasty food while somehow spitting out the medicament. Moreover, this approach is not well-suited to liquid medicaments.
The same issues arise with children, particularly with children that are too young to be “bribed” to swallow the medicine. Consequently, there is a need for a way to provide a medicament in a format that is easily and willingly ingested by pet or person. It is further desirable that a process for providing the medicament in this format be readily tailored to the form of the medication as well as the tastes of the recipient.